Tonight we have arrived in Echuca, the lands of the Yorta Yorta people. These lands around Dhungala (the Murray River) that we’re so grateful to be on tonight have always been the lands of the Yorta Yorta people, and we acknowledge their elders past, present and emerging.
On our way here though, we spend most of today in Bendigo, and it was another case of realising we probably could’ve spent a few days there and enjoyed so much more. (And I’m sure there will be many other cases of feeling like this as the holiday goes on!) We arrived late morning with a couple of plans in mind: the Bendigo Vintage Talking Tram, and the Central Deborah Gold Mine.
The tram starts its journey at the Gold Mine, so we arrived there and got ourselves ready for the tram ride. The track it takes winds its way from the south west end of the city, right up to the north east, and then returns. The “Talking Tram” bit refers to the recorded commentary you get on the journey – and it’s different in both directions. The trams are old electric trams that have been operating in Bendigo for some time (and essentially the same ones that you might’ve seen in Melbourne over the years). We really did enjoy travelling through Bendigo and hearing so much about its history – some of the architecture throughout the city is just incredible, especially in the church buildings. All up, the ride there and back was about 45 minutes, which was probably just right – I think that was probably the limit for the kids.
After we got back to the Gold Mine, we quickly grabbed some lunch across the road, and then came back into the Gold Mine. We had a tour booked for 3pm… but until then, we had time to explore the surface of the mine. Central Deborah Gold Mine was only open from 1939 to 1954, but it was one of the last to close. And it was left essentially untouched until it was reopened as a tourist attraction from 1986. We had a look through all the buildings on the surface, and had another go at gold panning as well – although it felt somewhat more “authentic” at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat!
Once 3pm rolled around, we headed back inside to get ready for our tour of the underground mine. We had a short briefing, and then our tour guide, Baz, took us down a tunnel to get helmets on. All the while, he shared amazing information about the Central Deborah Gold Mine, and gold mining in Bendigo in general – not only was he funny and full of information, he really went out of his way to include the kids as well, which they just adored. He got the kids to be “naughty” with him and reach behind the perspex screen and touch some real gold still in the quartz… they loved it!
Thankfully we didn’t have to use the miner’s lifts that were used during the 40s and 50s – they were a tight squeeze! When they reopened as a tourist attraction in the 80s, an industrial lift was installed – so all 18 of us could head down into the mine together. We headed down to what was known as level 2: 61m below ground. But that was only short compared with how far down they mined here – they went down to level 17, which was equivalent to 411m! Below level 5 is now completely filled with groundwater and hasn’t been pumped out for decades.
We were essentially taken on a loop of the mine on level 2, and we learnt about how they drilled and used explosives to get the rock out and look for those quartz reefs that would hopefully house the gold they wanted to find. Every stop was fascinating, and incredible to think how hard and laborious the work was that went on here in this mine (and every other gold mine across Bendigo). No question was too hard for Baz as we went around, to the point where I was so sure he’d been a miner before he’d decided to run tours instead – but that wasn’t the case; he was just very, very good at what he did, and clearly loved it as well.
We particularly enjoyed his response to the question, “if there’s so much gold still in the rock here, why aren’t they mining it anymore?” – because there’s more money in tourism!
Before we knew it, we were back around at the lift and ready to head back to the surface. Both Debbie and I said to each other that we could easily do the tour another 2 or 3 times to try and take all the information in. That’s not to say that the tour wasn’t just incredible on its own – but it certainly left you wanting more and to do it all over again very soon. And we both really felt that it was really amazing value for what you got from it. Most definitely worth your time if you’re around the Bendigo area.
We jumped in the car and got on the road to Echuca – thankfully, only about an hour and 15min up the road. Along the way, we stumbled on some Silo Art at Rochester! We had planned on seeing a few pieces on the Silo Art trail just a couple of days ago, but in the end chose to do some extra walks around Gariwerd (Grampians) instead. So it was wonderful to just come across this right beside the main road. We all jumped out and spend some time admiring it, and reading the wonderful story of how it came to be in Rochester.
We arrived into Echuca a bit late in the end, after 6pm. We unpacked and the kids got stuck into writing in their travel journals while I headed up to Woolies to get a few things for dinner. I’m already looking forward to some really exciting adventures that lie ahead tomorrow…
Awesome!!!